UFCThe Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a U.S.-based mixed martial arts organization, recognized as the largest MMA promotion in the world. The UFC is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada and is owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC. This promotion is responsible for solidifying the sport's postion in the history-books.
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Lyoto has no need to be gun-shy here.. he's going to come out swinging like never before

While you may be right, and that would be just what he needs (a quick, agressive destruction of a very tough legend) if he is overly agressive, Randy may weather the initial storm and work his clinch game and wrestling and grind him for the remainder of the round (though almsot definitely not finish him). Not that that would win the fight, but it wouldn't be a good strart, ya know?

Lets take a moment and look at this logically. Everyone knows how to beat Machida now, cut him off, and don't get the sh*t kicked out of you as you try. Lets look at the two fighters who've attempted this:

Shogun Rua, probably the fasted LHW other than Machida (possibly Jones as well) in the game. He landed on Machida often, but not with any regularity until the second half of #1, and finished Machida while Machida was attacking (not counter-attacking) in #2.

Rampage Jackson. Rampage is slower than Shogun (obviously) but is still a very dynamic LHW. He was able to touch Machida all three rounds. But very rarely was able to land solidly. Aside from a few power hooks and the clinch uppercut he landed nothing noteworthy against the most hesitant Machida I've ever seen

Now lets look at Couture. I wanted to wait until after the Countdown show to see what he was doing in his training. And honestly from the Countdown's pitifully short exposee on Couture and Machida he looked like a much slower version of Shogun.

Now if Shogun wasn't able to corner Machida against the cage with his FAR superior speed to Rampage, and most definitely superior speed to The Ancient One. How do you expect him to keep pace with Machida?

Lets take a moment and look at this logically. Everyone knows how to beat Machida now, cut him off, and don't get the sh*t kicked out of you as you try. Lets look at the two fighters who've attempted this:

Randy is not a striker like Shogun and Rampage the comparisons are silly.

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Shogun Rua, probably the fasted LHW other than Machida (possibly Jones as well) in the game. He landed on Machida often, but not with any regularity until the second half of #1, and finished Machida while Machida was attacking (not counter-attacking) in #2.

Shogun and Randy are completely different fighters, Randy will have a drastically better game plan. Randy does not have the physical capabilities to fight Shogun's fight just like Shogun does not have the skills to fight Randy's.

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Rampage Jackson. Rampage is slower than Shogun (obviously) but is still a very dynamic LHW. He was able to touch Machida all three rounds. But very rarely was able to land solidly. Aside from a few power hooks and the clinch uppercut he landed nothing noteworthy against the most hesitant Machida I've ever seen

Again, different fighters, different physical abilities and different skills.

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Now lets look at Couture. I wanted to wait until after the Countdown show to see what he was doing in his training. And honestly from the Countdown's pitifully short exposee on Couture and Machida he looked like a much slower version of Shogun.

Explain to me how a wrestler can be a slower version of Shogun?

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Now if Shogun wasn't able to corner Machida against the cage with his FAR superior speed to Rampage, and most definitely superior speed to The Ancient One. How do you expect him to keep pace with Machida?

Because that has been Randy's game his entire career it hasn't been Shoguns.

Machida's strength is being "elusive", Randy's strength is in stifling movement and controlling his opponent. This is a horrible match up for Machida. Randy is a thinker and this is a physical chess game. Machida has speed but Randy has heard that before and prevailed, Machida has some power but Randy has fought more powerful fighters and prevailed. This is a fight Randy wanted to go out and retire on and he would not pick a fight that he wasn't sure he could win.

Couture in a snoozer fight that nobody wants to watch twice. An ugly UD for the natural.

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"If you get hit and it hurts hit him back you not knocked out yet."-Joe Doerksen

Happy that Randy Couture gets to go out in the biggest stage to date, even better moment if he manages to win. But winning might motivate him to keep fighting. So I guess a loss is in order, I dont want Machida getting cut either. Randy is going out in a better way than Chuck Liddell did, for sure.